Sex Workers In South Africa Research Articles

Crossing borders and boundaries: from ‘foreign prostitutes’ to ‘victims of trafficking in persons’

abstract Trafficking in persons, especially women and children for sexual purposes, has become an important focus for media, non-government organisations and governments all over the world. Media reporting on the increasing numbers of foreign sex workers in South Africa initially focused on the women's illegal status in South Africa as well as competition between them and local women sex workers for clientele. Since 2000, research by non-governmental organisations clearly identifies foreign women in the South African sex industry as victims of trafficking. This resulted in a shift in conceptualisation and all foreign women in the sex industry can now be viewed as victims of trafficking in persons. This focus looks at the shifts in conceptualisation of foreign women in the South African sex industry and raises questions about the potential for collaboration between South African and foreign women sex workers in the fight to combat trafficking in persons into the South African sex industry.

Anthropological Currents

Next article No AccessAnthropological CurrentsPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 44, Number 4August/October 2003 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/377646 Views: 46Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Gertie Pretorius, Dale Bricker The Lived Experiences of Sex Workers in South Africa: An Existential Phenomenological Exploration, Journal of Psychology in Africa 21, no.11 (May 2014): 33–41.https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2011.10820427

Regional clustering of shared neutralization determinants on primary isolates of clade C human immunodeficiency virus type 1 from South Africa.

Clade C is one of the most prevalent genetic subtypes of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in the world today and one of the least studied with respect to neutralizing antibodies. Most information on HIV-1 serology as it relates to neutralization is derived from clade B. Clade C primary isolates of HIV-1 from South Africa and Malawi were shown here to resemble clade B isolates in their resistance to inhibition by soluble CD4 and their sensitivity to neutralization by human monoclonal antibody immunoglobulin G1b12 and, to a lesser extent, 2F5. Unlike clade B isolates, however, all 16 clade C isolates examined resisted neutralization by 2G12. Infection with clade C HIV-1 in a cohort of female sex workers in South Africa generated antibodies that neutralized the autologous clade C isolate and T-cell-line-adapted (TCLA) strains of clade B. Neutralization of clade B TCLA strains was much more sensitive to the presence of autologous gp120 V3 loop peptides compared to the neutralization of clade C isolates in most cases. Thus, the native structure of gp120 on primary isolates of clade C will likely pose a challenge for neutralizing antibody induction by candidate HIV-1 vaccines much the same as it has for clade B. The autologous neutralizing antibody response following primary infection with clade C HIV-1 in South Africa matured slowly, requiring at least 4 to 5 months to become detectable. Once detectable, extensive cross-neutralization of heterologous clade C isolates from South Africa was observed, suggesting an unusual degree of shared neutralization determinants at a regional level. This high frequency of cross-neutralization differed significantly from the ability of South African clade C serum samples to neutralize clade B isolates but did not differ significantly from results of other combinations of clade B and C reagents tested in checkerboard assays. Notably, two clade C serum samples obtained after less than 2 years of infection neutralized a broad spectrum of clade B and C isolates. Other individual serum samples showed a significant clade preference in their neutralizing activity. Our results suggest that clades B and C are each comprised of multiple neutralization serotypes, some of which are more clade specific than others. The clustering of shared neutralization determinants on clade C primary HIV-1 isolates from South Africa suggests that neutralizing antibodies induced by vaccines will have less epitope diversity to overcome at a regional level.

Grassroots participation, peer education, and HIV prevention by sex workers in South Africa.

This microqualitative case study of a community-based peer education program led by sex workers at a South African mine examined the role of grassroots participation in sexual health promotion. The study involved in-depth interviews with 30 members of the target community. The interviews were analyzed in terms of social capital, empowerment, and identity. The study yielded a detailed analysis of the way in which community dynamics have shaped the peer education program's development in a deprived, violent community where existing norms and networks are inconsistent with ideal criteria for participatory health promotion. Much remains to be learned about the complexities of translating theoretically and politically vital notions of "community participation" into practice among hard-to-reach groups. The fabric of local community life is shaped by nonlocal structural conditions of poverty and sexual inequality in ways that challenge those seeking to theorize the role of social capital in community development in general and in sexual health promotion in particular.

Drugs, sex work, and HIV in three South African cities

Abstract Prostitutes in urban areas in South Africa were studied to examine the extent to which drug addiction has led to prostitution. Samples drawn from sex workers in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town were studied. The hypothesised link between drug addiction and prostitution was not found. Running an analysis of variance (ANOVA), with HIV as the dependent variable and ethnicity (excepting the small Indian sample) and drug use as dependent variables indicated that ethnicity is highly associated with HIV, that drug use is not associated with HIV, and the interaction between ethnicity and drug use is not quite significant (p = 0.057). Testing whether a positive association exists between use of hard drugs and HIV sero-prevalence among commercial sex workers in South Africa, revealed that hard drug users were actually less likely to be HIV positive (27%) than non-users (56%). Other characteristics of prostitution in South Africa relevant to HIV/AIDS are discussed.